Craic On

Buncrana Girl

Buncrana girl, Siobhan Barber, contacted me through CraicOn about TG4’s talent contest Busker Abu. However, she had missed the Letterkenny audition, which has been the day before.

The day she contacted med was the day of the Dublin Audition. Siobhan is at college in Maynooth and so could have made the Dublin audition – except for the fact that the producer of the show was heavily involved in the Dublin Audition.

Cork Audition

There was only one audition left and that was in Cork the next day. The show’s producer liked the soundcloud clip that Siobhan had made and Siobhan was keen enough to get herself from Maynooth to Cork the next day for her audition – and she passed with flying colours.

She is going to be on the show and will be filmed in the RTE studios on March 4th.

So, who is Siobhan and what is her history with music.

Siobhan and Diarmuid

We’ll let her tell you her story herself:-

“I started off playing bass, and joined a band when I was 13 with 3 other girls from Buncrana.It was called Don’t Lean Back.

“We gigged often and played at party in the park and other events. We did most of our gigs for charity.

“I uploaded a video to YouTube of me playing bass. It reached over 44,000 views. After that I started playing guitar, and eventually busking in Derry”.

Siobhan Barber and Diarmuid

Dublin and Galway Gigs

When she went to college at Maynooth Siobhan met up with fellow musician, Diarm.

She said “I met Diarmuid when I went to college, he lived in the apartment below me. He joined a band called ‘Whifflefit’ when he was and he still currently plays guitar for them.

“They’ve played loads of gigs in Galway and Dublin and took part in the Red Bull Bedroom Jam.

“Myself and Diarm go busking on a regular basis in Galway and Dublin. We’ve also played in the college student bar, a music night in Galway’s Gate Lodge, and play at other open mics and things. We try to get harmonies into all of our songs”.

To listen to the duo click on Siobhan and Diarmuid on Soundcloud